O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving­kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson: Jeremiah 20:7-13

O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed;

you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.

For whenever I speak, I must cry out,

I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the Lord has become for me

a reproach and derision all day long.

If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,”

then within me there is something like a burning fire

shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around!

Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

All my close friends are watching for me to stumble.

“Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him,

and take our revenge on him.”

But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail.

They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.

O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,

you see the heart and the mind;

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

The Psalm: Psalm 69:8-11, 18-20

8 Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach, *

and shame has covered my face.

9 I have become a stranger to my own kindred, *

an alien to my mother’s children.

10 Zeal for your house has eaten me up; *

the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.

11 I humbled myself with fasting, *

but that was turned to my reproach.

18 Answer me, O Lord, for your love is kind; *

in your great compassion, turn to me.’

19 “Hide not your face from your servant; *

be swift and answer me, for I am in distress.

20 Draw near to me and redeem me; *

because of my enemies deliver me.

The Second Lesson: Romans 6:1-11

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39

Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”